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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

A collection of bits and pieces......

Moderate Moslems Prepare

Woman for Honor Killing

by Stoning

Are there moderate Moslems? The President and others keep telling us there are. The only problem with them is they are mute. The grizzly crime described in the Times Online article below went around the world four days ago. The silence has been deafening:

The Times OnlineApril 14, 2006Teenager killed his sister for living a Western lifeFrom Roger Boyes in Berlin

AYHAN SURUCU was so angry when his sister started to wear make-up and date German men that he put a gun to her head at a bus stop and killed her.

The 18-year-old Turk fired three bullets into her brain and calmly walked away.Boys at a nearby school, attended mainly by the children of immigrant Muslim families, cheered and applauded when news of the murder reached them.

The so-called "honour killing" of Hatun Surucu, 23, last year shocked Germany and sparked intense debate about a conservative Muslim immigrant community at odds with a secular society.

That anger was rekindled yesterday when Surucu, a minor when the murder took place, was sentenced to nine years and three months by a Berlin court, considered lenient by many Germans.

His brothers, Alpaslan, 25, and Mutlu, 26, were acquitted because of lack of evidence, at which friends and family in the courtroom cheered. The prosecution had sought life sentences for their part in the murder of their sister.

Passing judgment, Michael Degrif said: "It is inconceivable that someone can be killed for living a Western lifestyle."

Although she was brought up in Germany, Hatun was forced into a marriage with her Turkish cousin in east Anatolia. The marriage broke up and she returned to Berlin with her five-year-old child to live the life of a young German woman: going to discos, renting a small apartment, taking lovers and starting an apprenticeship as an electrician. She abandoned the traditional headscarf and wore fashionable jeans. Her three brothers were upset, as was her father.

The state prosecutor had demanded that all three brothers be convicted. Ayhan, the youngest, had confessed to pulling the trigger but according to the prosecutor the two others had stood guard and obtained the murder weapon. They denied any involvement.

The evidence of a crown witness, a Turkish girl who wore a bullet-proof vest when she stood in the witness stand, was deemed yesterday to be too flimsy for a conviction. Only Ayhan, 19, was jailed after admitting that he wanted to "wipe the stain from our family".

There are 40 "honour killings" a year in Germany and most of them result from the failure of an arranged marriage, which are illegal in the country.

When was the last time we heard the "Moderate" voices condemming the practice? Or is it such "Hoinor Killings" are actually mainstream?

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According to the Boston Globe the Massachusetts Democratic party is tapping U.S. Sen. John Kerry's brother, Cameron Kerry, to co-chair a committee designed to help them win the one race that has eluded them for more than a decade: the governor's office. "Cam" has always operated in the shadows. What's there to know? Here's a couple of articles form the past:

The Wall street Journal Goes bonkers over Romneycare. Here are three diffeent Journal takes on it:First, from April 12"(Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's mandatory health insurance) law is far from the market-based approach the Governor claimed in an op-ed on this page yesterday. The core flaw is that the plan forces individuals to buy health insurance, and penalizes businesses that don't provide it, before deregulating the market for private health insurance.

"So the state is forcing people to buy insurance many will need subsidies to afford, which is a recipe for higher taxes and more government intervention down the road. Could this be why Mrs. Clinton, Ted Kennedy and the Families USA government medicine lobby are all praising it to the skies? Just asking.

"Mr. Romney compares his 'individual mandate' to the command that everyone get car insurance. However, states only force people who drive to have car insurance, and only then to insure for liability if they harm others. Drivers needn't take out collision insurance for damage they do to their own cars or bodies."

Another from the Aril 12 Journal:"What the Romney plan really shows is the need for federal law to free up interstate trade in health insurance. Under a bill sponsored by John Shadegg (R., Ariz.), residents of Massachusetts or other states would no longer be held hostage to the regulators, chiropractors and other lobbies that make insurance so expensive. Instead, they could purchase cheaper peace of mind to cover real medical emergencies from more sensible states, such as Connecticut or Iowa. Naturally, GOP leaders are asleep at this policy switch."Another Journal observation on April 12th, This one by columnist Brendan Miniter:"(A)s lawmakers look for health insurance plans that are cheap enough for most people to afford, they're going to run headlong into the reality that buying health coverage is very expensive. The reason isn't just that health care across the country is expensive. It's also that health insurers are prohibited from offering coverage that pays for only catastrophic events, such as a serious injury or heart attack.

"Rules vary by state, but in most places insurers are forced to cover everything from routine checkups to chiropractic care. Remove these mandates, allow deductibles and 'copays' to be raised high enough, and in an instant the price for some health plans would fall to about that of dinner out and a movie for two."Miniter continues:"Massachusetts will likely soon become the first state in the nation to force everyone living within its borders to buy health insurance or pay a tax for walking around uninsured. Gov. Romney says by signing such a mass mandate into law, he will achieve the Democrats' goal of universal health coverage on Republican market-oriented principles.

"Uh-huh. . . . The rhetoric from the Bay State's governor notwithstanding, RomneyCare will turn out to be not only expensive but also a mandate for more government spending and more government intrusion."

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Moe , Beyond the question -- are there any MODERATE MUSLIMS. There is the other question -- are there any MODERATE LIBERALS. -- For if they spoke out and demanded of Moderate Muslims to be vocal , then more moderate Muslims would appear. Liberals seem more afraid of Bush who will be out of office in a few years, than of an ever increasing in terms of numbers and territory more militant islam which once in power, is so far never displaced.Once parts of the middle east were very tolerant towards Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Bahai, other faiths--- now there is only 1 allowed religion in this place -- also known as Saudi Arabia.